void
Americanadjective
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Law. having no legal force or effect; not legally binding or enforceable.
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devoid; destitute (usually followed byof ).
a life void of meaning.
-
without contents; empty.
-
without an incumbent, as an office.
- Synonyms:
- unoccupied, vacant
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Mathematics. (of a set) containing no elements; empty.
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(in cards) having no cards in a suit.
noun
verb (used with object)
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to make ineffectual; invalidate; nullify.
to void a check.
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to empty; discharge; evacuate.
to void excrement.
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to clear or empty (often followed byof ).
to void a chamber of occupants.
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Archaic. to depart from; vacate.
verb (used without object)
adjective
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without contents; empty
-
not legally binding
null and void
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(of an office, house, position, etc) without an incumbent; unoccupied
-
destitute or devoid
void of resources
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having no effect; useless
all his efforts were rendered void
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(of a card suit or player) having no cards in a particular suit
his spades were void
noun
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an empty space or area
the huge desert voids of Asia
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a feeling or condition of loneliness or deprivation
his divorce left him in a void
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a lack of any cards in one suit
to have a void in spades
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Also called: counter. the inside area of a character of type, such as the inside of an o
verb
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to make ineffective or invalid
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to empty (contents, etc) or make empty of contents
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(also intr) to discharge the contents of (the bowels or urinary bladder)
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archaic to vacate (a place, room, etc)
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obsolete to expel
Related Words
See empty.
Other Word Forms
- nonvoid adjective
- prevoid verb (used with object)
- unvoid adjective
- unvoidness noun
- voider noun
- voidness noun
Etymology
Origin of void
First recorded in 1250–1300; (adjective) Middle English voide, from Anglo-French, Old French voide, voit, vuide, vuit ( French vide ), from unattested Vulgar Latin vocīta, vocita feminine of vocītus, vocitus unattested and dissimilated variant of Latin vacīvus, vocīvus, “empty”; vacuum; (verb) Middle English voiden, from Anglo-French voider, Old French, from unattested Vulgar Latin vocitāre, derivative of unattested vocītus, vocitus; (noun) derivative of the adjective
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In 2016, officials installed metal railings at an open space on the ground floor of a public housing block – known in Singapore as a "void deck" – in response to complaints about people playing football there.
From BBC
Chaos rocks Bolivia after bank voids $62 million that fell from sky.
From MarketWatch
Above and below this flattened region lie enormous empty areas known as cosmic voids.
From Science Daily
Customs and Border Protection to issue refunds by recalculating the initial duties importers paid, excluding the tariffs voided by the high court.
“Her love for her own family was evident in everything she did,” the organizer wrote, “and her absence leaves a tremendous void.”
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
